Alfred Hitchcock was born to a poultry dealer in London on August 13 1899.

By the time he was done with life and cinema in 1980, he rewrote the rules of suspense in film making, and paved the way for directors like Manoj Night Shyamalan to start sneaking cameo appearances of themselves in their own films. Not bad for a guy who began by designing title cards for silent films!

From working with screenwriters — who permitted him to direct some scenes of the film that didn’t include actors — he then moved up the ladder to the post of an assistant director and then director.

The list of successes to his credit simply grew from there (more…)